Describe your experience at LBSC.

My career at LBSC began in 1958. My experience at Long Beach was highly varied, but always interesting. It was satisfying to teach students from many backgrounds, and to see their development of skills and confidence as they moved from freshmen to juniors to seniors who were well qualified for graduate school and for careers. In addition to teaching Chemistry, I was active in a number of aspects of faculty governance, with particular emphasis on undergraduate curriculum and educational policies. I was pleased to see the eventual development of respect for the faculty role in the functioning of the university. I worked on self-studies for university accreditation, and also served as a member of the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) visiting teams at a number of other institutions. I also served in a strange assortment of temporary administrative positions, always returning to my first love, teaching. These positions included administering the French-Italian Department, Acting Associate Dean for Educational Policy of the old School of letters and Science, and one weird year when I started as, in effect, Associate Dean of Business Administration and ended the year as Acting Dean of Natural Sciences. Just before I entered the FERP program, I served as Acting Dean of Undergraduate Studies.

I was often the “second woman”: The second woman hired to teach Chemistry, the second woman to have a baby while serving on the faculty (but the first to teach part-time the following year, necessitating a new policy to deal with such situations), the second to serve as an academic administrator, the second to serve as Chair of the Academic Senate.

Why did you decide to teach at LBSC?

I came to Long Beach because they offered me a job, at a time when almost no one was hiring women in the physical sciences. Job discrimination was legal and taken for granted, but the founding faculty in the Chemistry program (not yet a department) were prepared to hire and support women faculty.

What was one of your most memorable experiences at LBSC?

There were many highlights. One was the honor of being elected as Chair of the Academic Senate, where I had the privilege of representing the faculty. Another was the opportunity to work with many, many others to assure that students receive clear, consistent, accurate information on educational policies and requirements. Obviously, this is what should always have happened, but in fact it was a huge change, as those graduates who encountered nightmares with the old “grad check” know well.

Do you still stay connected to the university? If so, how?

I serve as a volunteer tutor for the student athletes.

What are you doing today?

I keep busy with a variety of activities, including gardening, reading, and knitting blankets for Project Linus.

What would be one word to describe the campus / students / environment during the time you served?

Two choices: student-centered, and comprehensive (in the sense that Long Beach was an example of what later came to be described as “what a comprehensive university should be”.)

The Department of Chemistry in 1961. (Goldish is third from the right.)